more on Apple's Unlikely Guardian Angel

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Barry Ritholtz <ritholtz () optonline net>
Date: Sun, 06 Feb 2005 11:26:53 -0500
To: <dave () farber net>
Cc: <tesler () pobox com>, <monty () roscom com>
Subject: Re: [IP] more on Apple's Unlikely Guardian Angel

Hey Dave, 

Unlikely Guardian? Hardly.

While some may not remember this, there was a period when Microsoft could
have easily ended Apple's viability as a company.  All they had to do was
kill development of MS Office and Internet Explorer for Mac, claiming the
small market share did not justify their major expense of supporting the
platform.  

That would very likely have been the final death blow for Apple; This was
during the dark days BJR (Before Jobs Returned). Jobs' deal with Bill G. was
more of a credibility grab than a true cross licensing matter. Each got
something from the other -- Jobs showed the platform wasn't about  to
disappear, and Gates showed his warm and cuddly side (See, we're really no
predatory monopolists!)

It would have been against Microsoft's own interests to kill Apple. In legal
circles, it was thought that Redmond behemoth wanted to keep Apple around --
especially as a dramatically weakened competitor -- for anti-trust purposes.
> From both a business and an legal perspective,  the more technically viable
but economically weak companies making consumer OS's, the better it was for
potential DoJ litigation. They must have suspected one would be coming,
eventually.  

Amazing what can happen in a decade, though . . .


(please recall my  prior disclosures on MSFT)



Barry L. Ritholtz  
Chief Market Strategist
Maxim Group  
405 Lexington Avenue,
New York, NY 10174 
(212) 895-3614  
(800) 724-0761  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Big Picture: Macro perspectives on the Capital Markets, Economy, and
Geopolitics   
http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments





On Feb 6, 2005, at 11:10 AM, David Farber wrote:

> Dave, 
>
>  Just so nobody repeats misconceptions in this year-old column:
>
>  "Microsoft, in fact, always has been closely associated with the Mac.
> Microsoft created some of the Mac's first software applications: Excel and
> PowerPoint, for example."
>
>  The company that developed PowerPoint was Forethought. Microsoft acquired
> Forethought in 1987 and ported PowerPoint to Windows.
>
>  "There was, of course, a multi-million dollar legal battle throughout most of
> the '90s after Apple accused Microsoft of ripping off the Mac interface in
> Windows. After years of wrangling, the suit was settled out of court in 1997,
> when Microsoft made a symbolic $150 million investment in Apple and pledged
> products for the next Mac for the next five years."
>
>  The 1980's user interface suit was decided in court, in Microsoft's favor, in
> 1992 (or 1994, if you count the appeal).
>
>  The 1997 investment was related to patent cross-licensing, interoperability,
> and the desire of both companies to ensure that Microsoft applications for the
> Mac continued to be sold. See
> http://www.industryweek.com/DailyPage/newsitem.asp?id=99.
>
>  The whole column can be summed up in one word, coopetition, a word that was
> spoken a lot at Apple during that period.
>
>  Larry Tesler


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